Letters

Contraception

Tim Coyle

Contents - Jun 2008 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Man-made climate change: a moral issue - Michael Gilchrist Education: Pope: Catholic education must uphold Church teachings - Pope Benedict XVI News: The Church Around the World Human Rights: China: Olympic rings - or shackles? - Babette Francis Jury still out on global warming - Cardinal George Pell Christianity 'lite' with all the hard parts unmentioned: a spiritual dead-end - Alan Roebuck FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: Reasons for believing in God - Frank Mobbs Climate Debate: Man-made climate change is a reality - Dr Alex Gardner Climate Debate: Man-made climate change: politics not science - Peter Finlayson Letters: Climate change - J. Holder Letters: Sceptical - Bernard Hoey Letters: Scandal - Don Gaffney Letters: Contraception - Tim Coyle Letters: Baptism formula - Franklin J. Wood Letters: Adoptions - Tom King Letters: Abortion and Martin Luther King - Brian Harris Letters: Ordinary Magisterium - Peter D. Howard Letters: Infallible? - Frank Mobbs Letters: Priests needed in Ballarat - Jenny Bruty Books: RATZINGER'S FAITH: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, by Tracey Rowland - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Books: FR WERENFRIED: A Life, by Joanna Bogle - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Letters: FEMINISM V. MANKIND: Selected Essays - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: Books available from AD2000 Books Reflection: Benedict XVI on the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ - Pope Benedict XVI

In 1968 it was decided it was inappropriate to mention the contraceptive pill from the pulpit in case people voted with their feet.

Nearly 40 years on from Humanae Vitae it seems that this public indifference has itself led to an almost universal adoption of sterilisation which has contributed to loss of faith and therefore, most ironically, to falling congregations and vocations.

I can fondly remember the bulging numbers of 1957, with many standing at the back, at the 10am Sunday Mass in our parish church when the Missa de Angelis was sung by the congregation and Communion was received kneeling at the altar rails. Tempting as it is to see fault with the Second Vatican Council, one has to understand that fault can lie with the interpretation of the Council and its recommendations.

TIM COYLE (DR)
Cairns, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 21 No 5 (June 2008), p. 14